Tuesday, September 29, 2009

Do you need religion to be moral?

I'll reverse the question: is religiosity SUFFICIENT to grant morality? It seems not. Mafia members are religious, so were most nazis, so are suicide mass murders, rabid homophobes, and many devout churchgoesrs will happily cheat on taxes or their spouses. Religion doesn't make us moral. Natural law, society, make us moral. We don't need religion as such. We don't say to Madoff, to the Columbine killers, to a rapist "God will punish you" and leave it at that. We submit them to trial and punish them. In reality is your own conscience that's the origin of morals. How many of you abstain from evil (I.E. harming others) and give to charities purely because of the fear of hell or hope of heaven?
I'm with Kant: Starry sky above me, moral law inside me.

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